News | 21 December 2022
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Council’s Top of the Pops for 2022

It’s been a bumper year with an election, COVID-19 challenges, and hundreds of events, activities and services provided in the capital, but nothing stops the elves from compiling Wellington City Council’s weird, wonderful and whacky lists for 2022.

Dogs Patsy and Opie show off their yellow ribbons
Cavalier King Charles Spaniels Patsy and Opie

Dog names

  • Charlie
  • Bella
  • Poppy
  • Coco/Cocoa
  • Molly
  • Max
  • Ruby
  • Archie
  • Millie/Milly

Dog breeds

  • Labrador Retriever
  • Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
  • Border Collie
  • Mini Schnauzer
  • Staffordshire Bull Terrier
  • Shih Tzue
  • Jack Russell Terrier
  • Bichon Frise
  • Fox Terrier
  • Huntaway

Most interesting dog names

  • Pinot Noir
  • Chaise Destroyer of Worlds
  • Chu Chu Burgers
  • Eaglesham Isabel Pistol Packer
  • Brucey the Batdog
  • Pablo Escobark
  • Arlo Smoko Bobby Sands Houdini
  • Warrengate Whatarippa
  • Vindication Cinnnamon Starr
  • Sir Tobias Wigglebottom

Animal control

  • 15,060 dogs registered
  • 1165 dog registrations deactivated
  • 30 dogs re-housed

Social Media

  • 2,690 pieces of content published
  • 23,429,900 total reach across all channels
  • 58,241 queries/comments received on all channels

Contact Centre

  • Phone calls – 155,799
  • Emails to info@wcc.govt.nz – 25,664
  • Fixit app – 25,610
  • Webform – 28,823

Interesting lost property from the gyms/pools/recreation centres

  • Toasted sandwich maker
  • Crockpot
  • Watering Can
  • Car keys (how did they leave?)
  • House keys (up there with car keys)
  • Enough snapper cards to travel around Wellington for a year
  • Hotel key card
  • Skiing goggles
  • A breast prosthesis
  • Completely empty wallets

Parks, Sport & Recreation

  • 75 urgent after-hours call outs reported for the rangers
  • 42,500 hours of conservation work
  • 11,250 hours of walking and mountain biking track building
  • 53,750 volunteer hours in our public spaces
  • 428,096 pool door count at Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre
  • 104 faecal incidents at our pools
  • 47 vomiting incidents at our pools

Libraries crunch the numbers

  • Loans of physical collection (including books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, vinyl, book bags, scores etc): 1,432,699
  • Loans of eBooks and eAudio: 688,470
  • Average number of unique borrowers per month: 16,507
  • Average number of items borrowed by each user per month: 7.4
  • Overall door count across all libraries: 1,087,694
  • New library sign-ups: 8,642
  • Attendance at library events: 17,813
  • Visits to our library website/online catalogue: 3,651,931
  • New items added to physical collections: over 66,000
  • New items added to online collections: over 15,000

Libraries adult fiction books

  • Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens
  • Beautiful world, where are you - Sally Rooney
  • The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Read
  • The man who died twice - Richard Osman
  • Auē - Becky Manawatu
  • The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
  • Cloud cuckoo land : a novel - Anthony Doerr
  • Oh William! : a novel - Elizabeth Strout
  • The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
  • Apples never fall - Liane Moriarty

Libraries adult ebooks/audio

  • Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney
  • Greta and Valdin - Rebecca K. Reilly
  • The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
  • Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty
  • The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman
  • Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
  • The Girl in His Shadow - Audrey Blake
  • Dune - Frank Herbert

Libraries children fiction books

  • The getaway - Jeff Kinney
  • The meltdown - Jeff Kinney
  • Hard luck - Jeff Kinney
  • Rodrick rules - Jeff Kinney
  • The ugly truth - Jeff Kinney
  • The third wheel - Jeff Kinney
  • Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone - J.K. Rowling
  • The 13-storey treehouse - Andy Griffiths
  • Diary of a wimpy kid : Greg Heffley's journal - Jeff Kinney
  • The last straw - Jeff Kinney

Libraries children ebooks/audio

  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
  • Kristy and the Snobs: The Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
  • Karen's Kittycat Club: Baby-Sitters Little Sister - Katy Farina
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
  • Logan Likes Mary Anne!: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
  • Claudia and the New Girl: The Baby-Sitters Club - Gabriela Epstein
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling

Libraries young adult fiction books

  • One of us is lying - Karen McManus
  • Six of crows - Leigh Bardugo
  • Catching fire - Suzanne Collins
  • Red, white & royal blue - Casey McQuiston
  • Shadow and bone - Leigh Bardugo
  • They both die at the end - Adam Silvera
  • A court of thorns and roses - Sarah Maas
  • The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
  • Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
  • These violent delights - Chloe Gong

Libraries young adult ebooks/audio

  • Eddy, Eddy - Kate De Goldi
  • Five Total Strangers - Natalie D. Richards
  • The Girl from the Sea - Molly Ostertag
  • Serpent & Dove - Shelby Mahurin
  • Crave - Tracy Wolff
  • The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J. K. Rowling
  • Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins
  • A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking -. Kingfisher
  • Nick and Charlie - Alice Oseman
  • They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

Libraries festive spirit

  • Planning a Christmas menu?Try one of the 288 items that are about Christmas cooking. This includes 22 titles that are for vegan recipes, and 38 eBooks.
  • There is a total of 586 Christmas fiction books (including electronic, audiobooks and children’s fiction). We have 252 Christmas fiction books for adults.
  • 379 Christmas CDs, including “Dr Demento presents the greatest Christmas novelty CD of all time”.
  • Need to practice for your Christmas concert? Then borrow one of the 51 Christmas music scores or songbooks.
  • 366 films and TV shows which feature Christmas in some way, ranging from “Call the Midwife” to “Bluey” to “Wellington Paranormal”. Or try logging into Kanopy or Beama to stream Christmas themed escape: “Dreaming of Jewish Christmas”, “The Christmas dance”, “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”.
  • Need to make something special for Christmas? Try one of the 99 Christmas craft books.
  • 1222 items are in off-site storage with Christmas as a subject heading (you can reserve them any time of the year).
  • If you want to know if you can regift your Christmas gift you can borrow “101 dilemmas for the armchair philosopher: such as is it okay to lie about liking a gift” by Eric Chaline.
  • Need a fix of Mariah Carey? Watch the children’s animated movie based on her version of “All I want for Christmas is you”. And then borrow one of two copies of her Christmas CD.